I wanted to share some good catches made by the team over the last few weeks.
A male from out of town tried to steal two televisions from a retailer.
He was confronted by store staff and one television was recovered. The man then fled in a vehicle with the second. Police quickly located him in a vehicle, with the outstanding television, driving past, of all places, the Police station!
The male had other matters for which he was wanted by Police, so it was a pleasing catch all round and the retailer was happy to have their television returned.
While patrolling in Cambridge East, one late shift, staff came across a car driving without its headlights on and at speed. When stopped, the driver returned a breath alcohol reading almost six times the legal limit. He has since appeared in court. Another person was caught driving with a breath alcohol reading that was over twice the limit.
These examples serve as a reminder that it’s not just our own driving about which we need to be aware, but the potential for other road users around us to be under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
Recently I have had reports of young people in the Leamington area harassing elderly residents, playing ‘ding dong ditch’ whereby they knock on the door and then run away. This then escalated to wilful damage to a property. While to some ding dong ditch may seem like innocent fun, when it is targeted and persistent, it can be distressing and annoying especially to our older community members. Wilful damage to property is clearly unacceptable and not the behaviour in which we want our young people to be engaging. If you hear of your children or their friends doing this sort of thing, please put an immediate stop to it.
Still on the topic of our elderly, I have been asked to remind people to keep contact details for their next of kin and/or an emergency contact on them (this applies to everyone in fact). In a situation where a person becomes ill or is involved in an accident and is unable to articulate this information to emergency services themselves, having a card in their wallet giving such details is very helpful. Some mobile phones enable you to set a lock screen owner’s message which could also be used for this purpose (eg ICE: John Smith 021 xxxxxxxxx where ICE means In Case of Emergency). We had one situation recently where there was a welfare concern for an elderly person and police entered their home to find them absent.
Having contact details of the next of kin on the fridge or a noticeboard inside the house would also have helped speed up our ability to determine whether there was further cause for concern or they were simply away. Let’s work together to keep our community safe. Have a good week, Deb.
